Team

Board of Directors

Claire White, President

Claire White joined the Wayfind Board of Directors in 2015 and is currently the Board President. Claire is a senior associate at K&L Gates LLP and a member of the corporate practice group. Her practice focuses on the representation of public and private companies and investors in a range of corporate, securities and business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, financings and joint ventures. Her experience also includes formation and funding of emerging and growth companies, private equity investments, tender offers, and secured financing transactions, as well as advising public companies on a range of issues, including SEC compliance and corporate governance matters.

Diana Singleton, Vice President

Diana Singleton, joined the Wayfind Board of Directors in 2010 and is currently the Vice President. Diana has worked for almost 15 years on equal justice issues for marginalized and underserved individuals and communities. She started her career as an attorney at Northwest Justice Project representing low-income consumers, survivors of domestic violence and recipients of public benefits and collaborating with other nonprofit organizations and government agencies to improve access to justice. Currently, Diana works as the Director of Seattle University School of Law’s Access to Justice Institute which prepares law students for a lifetime of furtherance of justice in the law.

David Lawson, Secretary

David Lawson joined the Wayfind Board in 2013 and currently serves as Board Secretary. David is an associate at Davis Wright Tremaine and advises clients on matters related to tax exemption and charitable giving. He represents tax-exempt organizations, their donors, and businesses seeking to contribute to their communities. His areas of focus include acquisition and maintenance of tax-exempt status; corporate governance, including executive compensation issues; compliance with rules governing private foundations and donor-advised funds; cause marketing, including commercial co-venture regulation; corporate giving programs; unrelated business income tax issues; and IRS examinations. His clients include major health care and educational organizations; corporations engaged in charitable giving and cause marketing; corporate, family, and community foundations; trade associations; and major social service providers

Stan Brown, Treasurer

Stan Brown joined the Wayfind Board in 2014 and is currently the Board Treasurer. He is the Chief Operating Officer of Water for Humans, a nonprofit that has used the services of Wayfind in the past. Water for Humans provides low-cost, clean water and sanitation solutions to underserved populations while ensuring that water remains a local, public resource. He first became involved with Wayfind in 2010 when Water for Humans became a Wayfind client seeking legal assistance in becoming a 501(C)3 organization. Since then, Wayfind has also helped Water for Humans obtain legal aid with nondisclosure and cooperation agreement contracts. Before Water for Humans, Stan spent twenty-nine years working in the computer industry as a systems engineer for IBM and as a technical manager (systems engineering and network operations) for AccessLine Technologies.

Chad Fischer

Chad Fischer joined the Wayfind Board in 2018 and has been an attorney at Microsoft supporting various products and services since 2007. He is currently an Assistant General Counsel responsible for providing legal support to the Cortana engineering team and the engineering teams working on Conversational Understanding. Prior to joining Microsoft, he spent almost 13 years as an attorney in the wireless telecommunications business. Over the course of his career Chad has been fortunate to work on cutting edge technology and has had to creatively solve problems in areas where the law is not well developed. He has experience across a wide range of issues and is currently focused on artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, and data privacy.

Claire Davis

Claire Loebs Davis joined the Wayfind Board of Directors in 2017. Claire is a partner in the Seattle office of Lane Powell PC, where she is co-chair of the nonprofit practice group, co-chair of the animal and earth advocacy group, and chair of Lane Powell’s Seattle pro bono committee. Claire represents nonprofits in a variety of matters, including defending them in litigation and advising them on issues of governance and risk management. Her practice also focuses on representing nonprofits that benefit environmental and animal causes, including in bringing advocacy litigation. Claire is actively involved in a number of community and volunteer activities in addition to Wayfind, including serving on the board of the Campaign for Equal Justice and the Municipal League Foundation of King County.

Clint Foss

Clint Foss joined the Wayfind Board of Directors in 2018. Clint is an Associate in the corporate practice group at Dorsey & Whitney LLP. His practice focuses on complex commercial transactions, securities offerings, corporate governance and mergers and acquisitions. Clint represents clients ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies. Clint is a regular volunteer attorney at Wayfind’s Microenterprise Legal Clinic and has advised nonprofit organizations with respect to formation and corporate governance.

Lorri Dunsmore

Lorri Dunsmore joined the Wayfind Board of Directors in 2017. Lorri graduated from the University of Nebraska Law School with high distinction. Lorri is a partner at the law firm of Perkins Coie LLP. For over 30 years, Lorri has counseled individuals, businesses and tax-exempt organizations on an array of charitable, wealth transfer, business succession and federal tax matters. Lorri regularly works with individuals and tax-exempt organizations to address a wide variety of tax and state law issues impacting charitable giving, formation of nonprofits and addressing the specialized needs of tax-exempt organizations including private foundation excise taxes, excess benefit transactions, lobbying restrictions, fundraising law compliance, commercial co-ventures and joint ventures. Lorri has spoken and written about numerous issues related to nonprofit governance and compliance matters and has worked with a variety of tax-exempt organizations to provide training for board members and officers.

Stephanie Meier

Stephanie joined the Wayfind Board of Directors in 2014. Stephanie is an associate at Stoel Rives in the Corporate group and focuses her practice in the area of food and beverage law. She advises alcohol beverage industry clients in all aspects of state and federal licensing and permitting, post-licensing regulatory compliance, local and national marketing promotions (including state and federal regulatory limitations and alternative structures), state and federal label and packaging compliance, state and federal tax issues (including TTB audits), contracts (including alternating proprietorships and leases), and distribution issues. She also has experience with corporate issues related to alcohol beverage industry clients and conducting trademark searches and advising clients regarding clearance.

Laura Klein

Laura Epler Klein joined the Wayfind Board of Directors in 2016. Laura is an associate at DLA Piper LLP in the corporate and securities group. Her practice concentrates on securities and corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings and public company reporting and general corporate counseling, with a focus on representation of startup companies and venture capital investors. Her pro bono practice focuses on advising nonprofit organizations with respect to formation, corporate governance, and tax-exemption.

Catherine West

Catherine West joined the Wayfind Board of Directors in 2017. She has spent twenty years working with low-income, vulnerable and marginalized populations. Catherine has represented indigent clients at the Northwest Justice Project since 2004. She defended homeowners in mortgage, property tax and homeowner association foreclosure. She represented seniors in consumer, housing and public benefits issues. In 2015, she received Northwest Justice Project’s Advocacy Award. She currently represents families and vulnerable adults on a Medical-Legal Partnership with Harborview Hospital and Seattle Children’s Hospital, and focuses on guardianship, Medicaid, and the rights of trans and gender diverse youth.

Staff

Brenda Tausch Lapora, Staff Attorney

Brenda joined Wayfind in 2015. She has a background in civil legal aid, veterans law, and assisting nonprofits with transactional matters. Prior to joining Wayfind, Brenda launched the military Discharge Upgrade Clinic for the Urban Justice Center’s Veteran Advocacy Project in New York City, and she represented veterans in veterans’ benefits and military discharge upgrade cases. She first started assisting low-income individuals and communities as an attorney on the Northwest Justice Project’s CLEAR legal hotline. Brenda also has experience teaching Ethiopian law students at Haramaya University, where she lived for six months. She has served on the Board of Directors of six nonprofits, and most recently served on the Seattle Globalist’s Board. Brenda is also a part-time faculty member for the University of Washington’s Communication Leadership graduate program, and was a 2017 JustLead Washington Leadership Academy Fellow.

Jodi Nishioka, Executive Director

Jodi Nishioka joined Wayfind in 2011. She has worked for over 20 years on behalf of low-income communities, particularly women, children and immigrant/refugee communities. She started her career as an attorney advocating for immigrant domestic violence surviviors and single mothers fighting for child support in legal aid organizations in Boston and Honolulu. Jodi continued her work on behalf of women and children within state and city governments in Hawaii and Seattle and later with grassroots nonprofit organizations. Currently, Jodi enjoys her work at Wayfind because it combines her legal skills with her dedication to building power in communities of color and low-income communities. She believes in Wayfind’s mission of improve the quality of life of all Washington communities through its support of nonprofits and microenterprise businesses. Jodi is also on the Board of Directors of JustLead Washington and enjoys practicing yoga, golfing and spending time with her family.

Laura Rodriguez, Office Coordinator

Laura joined Wayfind in 2018. She hails from Northern California and has a background in Humanities and Education. Laura has spent time teaching an age range that spans from young children to adults in a variety of settings and internationally. An avid traveler, Laura has spent time living in Mexico and France, and is trilingual. Laura is passionate about racial justice and sits on the committee of the Community Justice Program, which works locally to support youth in leadership development, understanding of structural oppression and supports their efforts to organize in their communities. Laura enjoys karaoke and can be found enjoying soup year round.

Maha Jafarey, Staff Attorney

Maha joined Wayfind in 2016 as a volunteer attorney and is now serving Wayfind as a staff attorney. She has a background in commercial and intellectual property (copyrights and trademarks) related transactions. Her pro bono practice focuses on advising nonprofit organizations with respect to formation, corporate governance, federal and state compliance and representing juveniles seeking asylum in immigration court.

Sarah Baker, Program Manager

Sarah joined Wayfind in 2018. A graduate of North Seattle College with a BA in international business, she is considering continuing her education in Seattle with an MPA. A native Seattleite, Sarah has a breadth of experience within the local nonprofit realm. Starting as a young volunteer for organizations like Team Survivor Northwest and Jet City Improv, her passion for social justice and community building have led her to continue pursuing a career in equity and advocacy. Sarah is excited to work for Wayfind because she is a firm believer in supporting grassroots organizations, communities of color, and the disenfranchised. Sarah is also on the Board of Directors for the Seattle Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, the United States’ oldest and largest Asian American civil rights organization. She enjoys dancing, volunteering, and cats.